This paper examines the nature of the divide which Mbeki pointed to between the ‘two nations’ and the reasons for the limited response to this divide during the post-apartheid era since 1994 at which he hints. This paper argues that this response can be understood only through an historical analysis of the transition to democracy. Section 2 provides an overview of inequality, poverty and economic growth in South Africa and their trends during from 1994 - 2004.

On 18 November 2011, the Presidency’s Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), with the technical and financial support from the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD), held a workshop to examine crime and violence in South Africa. At the core of the workshop was a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) which, using South African and international research evidence, sought to determine what the causes behind violent crime in South Africa were.

This document introduces the main features of a poverty line and invites public consideration and comment of the proposed approach. It is a consultation document, aimed at encouraging debate and seeking public consensus on some of the options available for the design of a national poverty line.

We develop a capital grant model that can be used in developing economies to allocate grants to sub-national governments for economic or social capital. The model allows these allocations to happen in a way that increases the value of the capital stock whilst at the same time addresses any inter-regional inequities, or economic inefficiencies. The model is also applied to South Africa as an illustrative example, and the results of three model simulations for that country are presented. There is a discussion of the data requirements for the model and how it might be replicated by researchers for other economies.

This report represents an executive summary of three longer research papers by our task team and several colloquiums where the findings of the research were discussed with independent panellists. The integration of different research fields (demography, macro-economics, labour market and poverty) strives to create a common understanding of the problem and the challenge we face. Although the report is founded on solid and comprehensive academic research, it provides an intelligible analysis of economic trends and some of the complex choices (with far-reaching consequences) that decision-makers have to make: “High growth will certainly help to roll back poverty...but it might exacerbate inequality…which one gets the priority?”, or “In the struggle against poverty, the needs will always be more than the available resources”. This explains the intensity of the political debate on priorities within state expenditure.

Household expenditure surveys, like the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) and Living Conditions Survey (LCS), are fundamental components to a survey programme of any statistical agency. They are an essential building block for the consumer price index (CPI) to stay current with the changing spending and consumption patterns of the country and are the best sources of data for the measurement of money-metric poverty and inequality. The consistent approach to the collection of expenditure data through these tools since the IES 2005/2006 allows us to measure trends in the poverty situation of the country between 2006 and 2011.

This document reports on a Conference hosted by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), in partnership with the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII), Isandla Institute, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) and the Programme to Support Pro-poor Policy Development (PSPPD), and took place in Gauteng, South Africa on 20, 21, 22 September 2010. There were 124 participants at the conference, including representatives from government, academia and civil society.

On 6 June 2011, the PSPPD in the National Planning Commission (NPC) in the Presidency, Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) held a high level policy forum to discuss the issue of inequality and poverty in South Africa and what policy options exist to address it. The Forum presented an opportunity to debate the policy conclusions from research into inequality and poverty trends in South Africa and other countries with relevant experiences, particularly Brazil.

The handbook on poverty and inequality provides tools to measure, describe, monitor, evaluate, and analyze poverty. It provides background materials for designing poverty reduction strategies. This book is intended for researchers and policy analysts involved in poverty research and policy making. The handbook began as a series of notes to support training courses on poverty analysis and gradually grew into a sixteen, chapter book. Now the Handbook consists of explanatory text with numerous examples, interspersed with multiple-choice questions (to ensure active learning) and combined with extensive practical exercises using stata statistical software. The handbook has been thoroughly tested. The World Bank Institute has used most of the chapters in training workshops in countries throughout the world, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malawi, Pakistan, the Philippines, Tanzania, and Thailand, as well as in distance courses with substantial numbers of participants from numerous countries in Asia (in 2002) and Africa (in 2003), and online asynchronous courses with more than 200 participants worldwide (in 2007 and 2008). The feedback from these courses has been very useful in helping us create a handbook that balances rigor with accessibility and practicality. The handbook has also been used in university courses related to poverty.